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[Note: I wasn’t in South Bend, so this was all transcribed from the video provided by the Athletic Department’s site.]

Opening remarks:

“Obviously Notre Dame played a very good football game and we didn’t. You’ve got to give them a lot of credit. A lot of credit to what they did on third downs, either defending us or their third down opportunities that they converted on.

“We’ve got to go back to work, and we will as a team. You don’t want to have four turnovers in a game. That doesn’t help you. The red zone, we didn’t help ourselves in there. From the penalty side, we put ourselves behind the sticks offensively. And again, you’ve got to give them a lot of the credit too. But we will bounce back because this is a very resilient, hard-working group of young men who know what it takes to win.”

After [Devin] Gardner started fairly quickly, I think six-for-six, and then did they bring more pressure, did your offensive line struggle; what fell apart?

“I think a little bit it’s never one guy, it’s never one piece of the offensive line, or the quarterback, or the routes, or whatever. When those things happen I think they happen as a team. He started six-for-six. I think we’ve got to give them- we crossed the fifty and they were going to bring more pressure. That’s what they did.”

Can you talk about Ray Taylor and any update on his status?

“I’m not going to talk about any of those injuries. Number one, I don’t know enough about them.”

And then Jabrill [Peppers], he dressed. Could he have played?

“If he could have played we would have played him. We evaluated all those guys before the game.”

And then you dressed him?

“Well, he went out because we were evaluating him before the game.”

You said you’re pretty confident this team will bounce back. How do they bounce back from such a- I mean, this was a pretty humbling loss here.

“Yeah, it is but I think they’ve all been humbled sometime in their life. It’s part of the resiliency this group has.”

Your guys were pretty adamant about how bad they wanted this because of this possibly being the last game. Were you surprised at how lopsided this ended up being?

“This game? Yeah.”

[After THE JUMP: Gardner is still the starter, why Countess was pulled, and bouncing back from adversity]

You talked about Devin [Gardner]. Did you ever consider pulling him at any point?

“No. No. I mean, he’s our quarterback. You know, unless he doesn’t come to work every day, doesn’t come to learn, all those things, he’s our quarterback. We wanted to put points on the board.”

Do you feel like he’s slipping into some of his habits he had last year? Holding onto the ball too long, or…

“Well, obviously- I don’t think he slipped into all those habits. I think he’s a better quarterback- I know he is. He’s a better quarterback than he demonstrated today.”

You talked about how this team will bounce back, but does it need something different? Does it need some changes from you as the head coach, or personnel-wise, or anything like that? I know immediate aftermath it’s hard to know.

“I think that it is hard to know. I think when you evaluate it, and we’ll evaluate it on the bus on the way home; you know, how guys played, who didn’t play well, who played well. You know, because there were some guys who played pretty well. Jake Ryan- I thought he played a pretty good football game. You could feel him out there. You know, Jack Miller did some good things when you watch that.

“The bad part was we got behind the sticks too many times and got out of rhythm offensively, because we were running the ball halfway decent. That was encouraging to see but then obviously, I think at halftime it turned into a game where we needed to throw it a little more”

Evertt Golson is a guy who didn’t even make it out of the first half the last time you guys faced him. He was considerably better tonight. What are the biggest differences you’ve seen in him going against him?

“Well, I think they also use him well. I think Brian [Kelly] does a good job. There’s a lot of three-step game in it, a lot of slants. I think he’s matured. I think I said that this week coming in that he’s a much better quarterback than he was two years ago just from watching the Rice game, and I would say the same thing after our game.”

You shuffled the secondary a lot.

“Some of that was because of injuries.”

But even taking out Blake [Countess] at one point. What did you see there that you didn’t really like?

“Well, we’ve played a lot of guys back there in the past. Stribling, we wanted to get him some live reps in there. Sometimes you take a guy out and he gets a chance to watch from the sidelines a little bit, and maybe he picks up a few things. We didn’t play well in man coverage. You get called for two interference calls- and we’ve got to play smarter- early and the guys get a little bit worried about playing press.”

This is I believe 0-4 against the big three rivals on the road over the last four years. What is this team missing? What does this team need to get over the hump?

“Winning. You win the game. You play. You don’t turn over the ball. You don’t give up big plays.”

Is this a mental thing at this point or what do you guys view this as?

“You talk about it enough into being a mental thing. I don’t think it’s a mental thing.”

What do you think it is?

“Just what I said. You can’t give up big plays. Can’t turn the ball over.”

When the game was that far out of reach, Gardner often puts his body in a position where he takes hits. He takes hits in the fourth quarter. Why were you playing him at that point?

“Because he’s our quarterback. He’s our quarterback. You know, we’re going to play some really big games on the road this year, and for him to keep improving he needs to play quarterback.”

Is it a risk, when he takes a hit like that?

“Anything’s a risk. To me, the risk was starting him maybe. I don’t know. We’re trying to develop a team.”

You might have touched on this a little bit already, but what specifically was your message to the team?

“After the game? Number one, give Notre Dame credit for how they played. It was a total butt kicking all the way around that we all took. Going back to work tomorrow as a team, like they will. And we’ve got to get a lot better. I think we learned some things that we’ve got to get better at.”

It looked like your quarterback was under pressure a lot and their quarterback wasn’t under pressure a lot. Was there a disparity in the trenches or was that scheme?

“I don’t know about that. He had to run enough. He did a good job evading a lot of rush, Everett did. And so I think there was pressure there. And sometimes it’s hard to get pressure on a three-step game.”

You mentioned that you feel like this team will bounce back. Adversity-wise, with a young team do you worry that they may get off track?

“I really don’t. Not with this team.”

Why?

“Because of what we’ve seen every day from them. I mean, from their work ethic, from how they care about each other. All those things.”

Devin [Gardner] took a good shot at the end. Is he okay?

“Like I said, I’ll talk about those injuries when I know more.”